It is Dietitians Week and this year we are celebrating our profession in true dietetics style… with passion for our cause and our love of evidenced based nutrition facts! This year’s theme is ‘Evidence and Expertise’ Nutrition related information is at our finger tips in a confusing abundance. But is it all true? Honestly, no! There is plenty of misleading, poorly substantiated and plain scary advice out there. It is
Microbiome is a hot health and nutrition topic but it is by no means a fad. It is here to stay and due to its, relatively recently revealed impact on health, this is a topic that definitely scores high on the ‘knowledge is power’ scale. This section may feel like Biology 101 but the definition alone of the term ‘Microbiome’ helps to emphasize its significance in human health and disease prevention. The
Just Fruity Animals … Now, i think you would be hard pressed to find a convenient healthy treat as cute as these! A great lunch box filler or after school snack, these fruity rhinos, elephants, lions, hippos and buffaloes are sure to please any kid. I just loved these when I saw them and wanted to share my opinion and nutritional analysis of them. It is important to reduce
Smoothie design is half the preparation work done. While already quick to prepare, smoothie making can be even quicker if you plan ahead. Simply design a few recipes using the Smoothie Design infographic guide below which will help you create a good balance of nutrients with sensible portion control. It is important to be careful not to create a kilojoule bomb of a smoothie if you are trying to lose
Love pulses? What are pulses you ask? The term “pulse” describes any crop grown for the use of the dry seeds only, rather than a fresh vegetable or fruit. Pulses are essentially the seeds we eat from legume plants and include dry beans, dry broad beans, dry peas, chickpeas and lentils. Green beans and green peas, which are considered vegetable crops, are excluded from the legume family. Today, the 18th of January, marks the second annual Global Pulse
Drinking sugar is often a sugar intake that people forget about and therefore do not account for. As Diabetes month draws to a close and the festive season approaches, taking stock of how much sugar you are drinking is an exercise worth doing. Sugar is hidden in many products and beverages are no exception. The reason for highlighting beverages is the fact that they are consumed in addition to our meals.
The scary truth about diabetes is that half the number of people living with diabetes are currently unaware. November is diabetes awareness month and today, the 14th of November, is World Diabetes Day. This year’s theme is “Eyes on Diabetes” with the intention of promoting more screening and encouraging those living with diabetes to monitor their blood glucose levels regularly. Both of these efforts will result in a reduced incidence of
Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions across the globe with latest statistics revealing that if nothing is done to prevent or manage childhood obesity, as many as 268 million school-aged children around the world will be overweight or obese by 2025. This is scary, especially when we attach childhood obesity to the likelihood of adulthood obesity and the resulting risk factors thereof. Overweight and obese children or teens are more
While the best source of vitamin D is readily available sunshine, more and more people are becoming deficient in this sunshine vitamin. This is a result of the reduced sun exposure, necessary for protection against skin cancer and the sunlight hours stolen by desk bound jobs and indoor exercise. The reason for concern with such a deficiency is the multiple roles vitamin D plays in the maintenance of a healthy body. Vitamin
While traditional complementary feeding (introduction to solids) is simply described as the feeding of pureed food with a spoon, Baby Led Weaning is an entirely different approach, seeing infants self-feeding from age 6 months. As Baby Led Weaning gains momentum as a more convenient option that enhances the development of fine motor skills, it is easy to see the attraction. Nutritionally speaking however, there are some differences between the two methods and with nutrition during
In light of the United Nations declaring 2016 the International Year of Pulses, this years National Nutrition Week theme is … “Love your beans – eat dry beans, peas and lentils!” These foods are known as pulses form part of the legume family which includes alfalfa, clover, lupin, green beans, peas, peanuts, soya beans, dry beans, broad beans, chickpeas and lentils. Dried beans, lentils and peas are among the most commonly known and consumed
I often find myself advising clients to add fibre to their diets. The reason for this is simply that fibre has many, well researched, health benefits to offer and adding it to each meal is an easy way to promote health. Fibre is often overlooked as a nutrient but it has an important place in our nutrient requirements and you will find it in most nutritional tables on food products.
Detox diets are trendy and followed by many, with the belief that they will detox the body, boosting weight loss and overall health. There are a variety of products available to achieve a body detox with extensive advice on the topic to compliment them. I am not in the habit of assigning labels to foods so this is not an article about which foods are ‘toxic’ and which foods are not. Nor
Fat… such a small word, and yet one that has certainly created enough of a stir in the nutrition world to warrant a little investigation. A hot nutrition topic in South Africa of late, a high fat diet was recently advocated at the National Obesity Forum in the UK. Unlike in South Africa, however, this notion was quickly dismissed as dangerous advice. A few weeks later, came the results of
Work smart, not hard is my dad’s favourite saying and applies to everything in life. Not only is it a great philosophy, but he is great at it, which gives it much weight and prominence in my mind. I think it is the perfect approach for health management too, a facet of life which has become far too trendy and complicated. There is a constant stream of nutrition related information